A rectangular playground is $8$ meters wide. It is $3$ times as long as it is wide. What is the area of the playground?
Solution: Area is the amount of space a flat shape fills. $\text{Area of a rectangle} = \text{width} \times \text{length}$ The ${\text{width}}$ is ${8}\text{ meters}$ and the ${\text{length}}$ is $3$ times the ${\text{width}}$. $8\times3\text{ m}$ $8\times3\text{ m}$ $$ $\,8\text{ m}$ $\,8\text{ m}$ The ${\text{length}}$ is $3\times{8}={24}\text{ meters}$. $24\text{ m}$ $24\text{ m}$ $$ $\,8\text{ m}$ $\,8\text{ m}$ Now, we can find the area. $\begin{aligned} {\text{Area}} &= {l} \times {w}\\\\ &= {24}\times {8}\\\\ &=192 \end{aligned}$ The area of the playground is $192$ square meters.